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V. DANGEROUS DRUGS.
Only one important seizure was made during the year when on information received from the Colonial Office a large consignment of heroin on its way from Turkey to U.S.A. was intercepted. The packing of some of the drug deserves special notice. Huge cases such as are used for plate glass were made, and filled with cheap broken sheets of glass, the sheets being separated by stout boards. On a superficial examination of the cases no drugs could be found. Careful examination proved that all the dividing boards had been hollowed out forming numerous slots in each board, large enough to conceal a flat tin of heroin. The edges of the boards from which the slots had been excavated were concealed by thin strips of wood, carefully gummed, so that the join was not perceptible.
VI. ARMS,
Little was heard of arms smuggling during the year, but one large seizure of revolvers and ammunition was made in the ceiling of the engineer's workshop of a French Mail Steamer. It is believed that the arms were intended for delivery in Shanghai, where the demand for illicit arms seems to have revived.
VII. TRADE STATISTICS.
The Collection of Trade Statistics was commenced on 1st April, it having proved impossible to start sooner since time was required for a complete revision of the classification list with the help of the General Chamber of Commerce. A publicity campaign was undertaken first; lengthy notices were inserted in the newspapers, individual guilds of Chinese merchants were interviewed, and Chinese ship-owners and junk masters carefully instructed in their obligations.
It was finally decided that a trial should be given to a system which allowed importers and exporters of goods a definite period within which to make the necessary declarations, instead of making it necessary to lodge declarations in full before goods were imported or exported, as was the case before. The advantages of the new system to everyone concerned are obvious, but the success of the whole system depends on merchants rendering their returns promptly and completely. This unfortunately has not been the case, and a monthly average of 4,000 reminders and queries have had to be sent out. As it takes some time for the failure to make returns to be discovered, and for the correct returns to be received and entered up, it has meant that the figures given in the returns for any month always included a large number of delayed returns which should have been included in the previous month.
No prosecutions have yet been taken for failure to comply, but in the New Year a vigorous campaign of prosecutions will obviously be necessary, if the returns are to be made accurate and of real use.